Monday, April 13, 2020

COVID19 Update - Day 34

US Tests: 2,935,006
US Cases: 576,774
US Deaths: 23,369
Worldwide Cases: 2,019,320
Worldwide Deaths: 119,483

Maybe I've been too hard on Trump.  Maybe he is doing a very good job, as he continually insists.  Fortunately, we now have objective data for evaluating Trump's performance: The standards that he set for himself when he declared a national emergency in response to coronavirus one month ago.  Let's see how he's done, shall we?

  • Drive-thru coronavirus testing available at pharmacies and retailers. Two Walmart locations, two Walgreen's locations, and four CVS locations.  So a total of 8 such sites nationally.
  • In-home testing. None.
  • 'Google' website to assist in finding the nearest testing location.  Google proper was never working on such a site.  Verily, a company owned by the same parent company as Google, has developed a website serving five counties in California. (I want to point out that While at Home has such information on its website, developed completely independently of Verily, Google, or the federal government).
  • Waive interest on student loans. Done, as of March 20.
  • Waive in-state requirements for medical professionals serving Medicate, Medicaid and CHIP patients. Done.
  • Fill up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while gas prices were at record lows.  Nope.  And it's not going to happen, either, now that Trump is bragging about how he worked with OPEC and the Russians to RAISE oil prices.
  • 5 million new coronavirus tests within a month.  Yes and no.  We do have the capacity to conduct millions more tests.  What we don't have is the necessary equipment to collect samples for those tests.  And it doesn't seem that will happen any time soon.

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